In a recent interview with The Metro, Bethesda's VP of PR and marketing Pete Hines has talked up the benefits of short release cycles.
When quizzed about why Bethesda only chose to unveil one of its flagship releases, Fallout 4, a mere six months before the game hit shelves, Hines explained it’s the best way to not just build, but maintain player excitement.
"It's more about getting the amount of time between you know something actually exists and you can play it, and compressing that down as much as possible," he explains.
"[It means] you're not dealing with these drops of 'Okay, well you’ve announced it, but now there’s this long period of time, of weeks or months, where you don’t have anything new to tell me'."
Put simply, the point is to keep the conversation flowing. Bethesda didn’t want to give consumers the chance to lose interest in their product, not even for a moment.
There are other benefits too, such as being able to minimize the impact marketing has on the developers themselves.
By shortening the process, Hines says you’re also reducing the number of times you’ll have to remind developers to track down screenshots or capture gameplay footage. It's a tactic that keeps everyone happy.
"[If your marketing beats are staggered], you get this up and down in terms of excitement and conversation," he adds.
"[So you’re] trying to smooth that out, trying to reduce the amount of tasks and the number of times you’re going back to a developer and saying, 'Oh, we need some new screenshots or we need some new footage, or we need to put down another trailer'."
For more from Hines you can read The Metro’s full interview right here.